City Council asked to expand rules on homelessEast Downtown residents request ban on sleeping on sidewalks

CHRIS MORAN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
July 14, 2011

C.J. stows his belongings at a corner along St. Emmanuel and Congress on Wednesday. East Downtown residents have petitioned to have their neighborhood added to the city's anti-loitering ordinance, which prohibits sleeping on sidewalks.

Residents of a downtown neighborhood who say they are besieged by legions of addicts, sex offenders, the mentally ill and the otherwise down and out have asked the city of Houston to expand its so-called civility ordinance to rid the area of the public urination, defecation, even sex they say they have witnessed on their streets.

The residents of the East Downtown neighborhood, just across U.S. 59 from Minute Maid Park, have petitioned the city to bar people from sleeping or sitting on sidewalks in a 220-acre area in hopes of eliminating the nuisances they say they have witnessed while walking their dogs or looking out the windows of their loft apartments.

District I Councilman James Rodriguez, who represents the neighborhood and supports the petition, referred to a resident of the neighborhood who testified at a public hearing Wednesday as a "pioneer." Rodriguez, also the council's leading champion of the Houston Dynamo soccer stadium under construction in the neighborhood, said he has heard from several hundred constituents about the nuisances caused by the homeless.

"We're not, by any means, against homeless folks, we're just trying to give you some added tools to be able to maintain order and to protect our citizenry out in that area," Rodriguez told police officers who told the Council they had seen defecation, littering, prostitution and other unsavory activities while on their beats.

Some council members, however, said banning sidewalk sleeping in a small area would alleviate a symptom without treating the real issue of homelessness that has, by some estimates, 13,000 residents living on the streets.

"This affects the city of Houston as a whole. You're looking at a shifting. If you shift them from here, you're shifting them to somewhere else," said District D Councilwoman Wanda Adams. "We're pushing, but what exactly are we doing to help?"

The city's civility ordinance prohibits lying down, sleeping or putting bedding down on sidewalks in five neighborhoods in or near downtown. Residents have to petition the city to have their neighborhood covered by the ordinance. Council held a public hearing but could take no action Wednesday. The matter likely will be placed on the agenda in coming weeks for an up or down vote.

A broader question

Philip Boyko moved to the neighborhood from Bellaire in 2003. He knew the neighborhood had homeless, but said he has to take chicken bones out of his dog's mouth, close windows to keep out noise and had to call authorities "because of things that only should be done in a bedroom but that were done on the sidewalk right in front of our building."

Many homeless people congregate in East Downtown, drawn in part, Rodriguez and residents say, by outreach ministries that distribute food.

Council approval of the neighborhood as an area covered by the ordinance would give police officers authority to cite city code in asking the homeless to move and to fine them $200 or even arrest them if they refuse.

"Are we going to get to the point where homeless people aren't welcome in Houston?" Jones asked.

"I'm struggling with criminalizing people who are just down and out."

Finding a fix

Adams called for bringing together mental health experts, law enforcement and policy-makers to address homelessness citywide. Jones said more housing is part of the solution but acknowledged that there is no money for that in a city budget that was just cut by $100 million.

Jim Olive, a board member of the East Downtown Management District, which promotes growth and development in the neighborhood, said the ordinance would be the first link in a chain of events that could raise that money. By Olive's reckoning, clearing the neighborhood of nuisances would lure developers and residents, who would pay taxes the city could use to provide the social services that alleviate homelessness. That will not happen with the neighborhood as it is, he said.

"We're not going to attract developers into these areas," Olive said.

"People drive by there, they're not going to get out of their car, much less buy a house there."